Thursday, April 22, 2010

I welcome the announcement of the acceptance of the resignation of Bishop James Moriarty by Pope Benedict. Bishop Moriarty was a Bishop in the Archdiocese of Dublin during a time when the Commission of Investigation found that the sexual abuse of children by priests was covered up by the Archdiocese and other Church authorities and so it is only fitting that anyone who was part of the governance of the Archdiocese at that time should step aside following such findings.

I am very grateful to Bishop Moriarty for the content and tone of his resignation statement today. Bishop Moriarty acknowledges that he should have challenged the prevailing culture that existed within the Archdiocese and apologises for failing to do so, this is very welcome.

His acknowledgement that ‘the long struggle of survivors to be heard and respected by church authorities has revealed a culture within the Church that many would simply describe as unchristian’ is also very welcome - and compares very favourably to Bishop Drennan calling survivors vengeful and Cardinal Brady trying to pass himself off as a wounded healer.